Alas Pilipinas capped its preliminary campaign in another sweeping loss after yielding to host nation Bahrain, 18-25, 23-25, 20-25, in the AVC Challenge Cup for Men on early Tuesday, June 4, at the Isa Town in Bahrain.

The Filipinos remained winless in the weeklong tournament after dropping their opening match in similar fashion against world No. 32 China the previous day.

Though the Philippines came close to solving the puzzle against their Pool A counterparts, it just couldn’t quite nail the winning touch.

Bahrain, silver medalist in last year’s edition, progressed to the quarterfinals alongside China and will face the top two sides from Pool C.

Bottom seed of the same group which will either be Qatar or Indonesia will go up against the Marck Espejo-captained Alas Pilipinas in the classification stage.

While the men’s side couldn’t find its breakthrough in the competition, the women’s team went all the way to the semifinal undefeated before falling short against Kazakhstan.